[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 171 (Thursday, September 30, 2021)]
[House]
[Pages H5560-H5561]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            DAYS OF BIPARTISAN SOLUTIONS FEW AND FAR BETWEEN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Thompson) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Madam Speaker, I rise today with great 
disappointment as we await a vote on a secretive budget reconciliation 
package.
  I am incredibly proud to serve as the Republican leader of the House 
Agriculture Committee, and it is an honor to work on behalf of the 
farmers, ranchers, and foresters who feed, clothe, and power our 
Nation. I am equally proud of the bipartisan work the House Committee 
on Agriculture has done on behalf of rural America.
  Sadly, though, since the start of the 117th Congress, it seems the 
days of bipartisan, commonsense solutions are now few and far between. 
The most recent reconciliation process for the Agriculture Committee is 
especially concerning, if not utterly bizarre.
  On Friday, September 10, my Republican colleagues and I participated 
in a 9.5-hour markup only for the committee Democrats to recess until 
the following Monday to gain the votes they needed to ram through an 
incomplete and unvetted budget reconciliation package to the tune of 
$66 billion.
  Noticeably missing from the package was a whopping $28 billion--$6 
billion more than the committee's instruction--in additional spending, 
left out due to the Democrats' ongoing problems with the Congressional 
Budget Office and the Byrd rule in the Senate.
  During the markup, both Republican and Democrat members asked 
repeatedly when the committee would know more about the missing funds 
and whether the committee would be able to engage, review, and mark up 
the provisions. The committee's majority indicated the $28 billion 
would be added at a later stage.
  This was a stunning admission and a departure from regular order for 
the House Agriculture Committee. This amount of money would 
traditionally demand dozens of public hearings, testimony from 
stakeholders, and rounds of technical assistance from USDA, all 
conducted by the committee of jurisdiction.
  Unfortunately, that was not the case for this bill, a package that 
rivals

[[Page H5561]]

many titles of a 5-year farm bill in size and scope, I might add.
  Now, I wish I could say I was surprised, but given how Republicans 
have been so brazenly ignored throughout the first reconciliation and 
this newest sham reconciliation, this dereliction of process has, 
sadly, become par for the course.

  As for the $28 billion of missing mystery funds, members of our 
committee remain in the dark. Initial summaries leaked to the press by 
the stakeholder groups and Senate Democrats told one story. A draft 
leaked this week told a very different one, including what appears to 
be $34 billion beyond the Democrats' own instruction.
  This past weekend, the Budget Committee spent time moving the total 
package forward, and now it looks as though the Democratic chairman of 
the Rules Committee gets to decide the fate of the Agriculture package.
  This is absurd.
  This sham of a process is an insult to the 201 years of the House 
Agriculture Committee's bipartisanship. I refuse to stand idly by as 
this committee is driven into the ground by a partisan process that 
leaves rural America behind.
  Enough is enough, Madam Speaker. Congress is a circus, and Democrats 
in leadership are the ringleaders.
  This process is an absolute farce, and it has only further devolved 
into chaos as the press, lobbyists, and the Democratic leadership aides 
know more about the policy than committees of jurisdiction. Leaked 
documents and secretive briefings should not be the way Washington does 
business.
  Process aside, this is simply a bad bill, and it does next to nothing 
for rural America. It is shameful that in the nearly $100 billion of 
excess spending that claims to be for agriculture, there isn't one 
penny for the commodity safety net, crop insurance, broadband, or 
disaster assistance.
  Madam Speaker, I could go on and on about how this bill fails rural 
America. Five minutes simply is not enough time. So, I will close with 
this: Democrats can either force this sham of a bill through and pat 
themselves on the back for explosive spending and lack of transparency, 
or we can start over and work together to put real solutions on the 
table for rural America.

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